Quite often I heard from some mommies that they always run out of ideas when it comes to preparing teatime snacks for their preschoolers. I consider myself lucky as my son’s kindergarten provides teatime snacks. So far, he hasn’t complaint anything about the snack served in school. When I “interviewed” him on his preference between mommy’s cooking and school lady’s cooking, he cheerfully replied me that he liked both. I’m really happy that he can accept the food prepared by others even if my cooking is not on par with that of the school lady’s. I don’t mind it at all. At least, I have one less headache for the next two years.

In this posting, I have a simple and easy teatime snack recipe to share with everyone. It’s so easy that even a novice at baking can excel. The entire baking process is very fast too. 1½ dozen mini banana muffins will be ready in the oven within an hour (or maybe less if you are skillful) including the cleaning up time. Definitely save you some money than buying from the local bakery shop.

This recipe is adapted from Amy Ong of Cooking Crave, a mom with 3 lovely kids. Her food blog has a long list of kids-friendly recipes for you to try out. Remember to hop over to her blog to “dig the treasures”.

I must say that this is the best banana muffins recipe I had found so far. The muffins turned out to be very soft, fluffy and moist! The sweetness is also perfect for those without sweet tooth. So, there is no need to cut down the amount of sugar called in the recipe. I was truly satisfied with the results even at my first attempt. The only thing I didn’t follow is the baking temperature and the time required to bake. I used my own experiments to fine tune both.

In my 2nd attempt, I had added some desiccated coconuts into the batter. To my surprise, this little ingredient compliments so well with the bananas. The fragrant coconut flakes gave the muffins extra flavour and volume in the texture. Besides my family, it’s also a hit among my panel of “food taster” friends.

One important tip to get this recipe right is to use over-ripe bananas. This means that you will see many black dots appearing on the banana skin. This type of banana will be the tastiest for baking. I always have problems getting my bananas to reach this stage as they will end up in my hubby’s and son’s stomach even with many reminders and warnings to keep their distance and hands away.

Another point to share is that I like to use small muffin paper cup for making muffins. This size is perfect for all kids who prefer little treat. It helps to minimize wastage as well, and the muffin appears more adorable. It’s also great for adults (like my hubby and myself) who can have some small bites during snack time. When the muffins were fresh from the oven, we could easily pop a few into our mouth and only felt “guilty” after that.

I also discovered the beauty of using muffin paper cup. It can be “transformed” into a disposable plate if you open up the pleats. It saves you all the cleaning up especially during outings. Kill two birds with one stone! Doesn’t that sound great?

This super tasty banana muffin guarantees to please your preschoolers’ tummies during their breakfast and teatime, especially for the picky eaters who prefer “plain” muffins. It’s also perfect for all occasions such party, gathering and outing too. A must-try recipe for all!

Michelle: The colour of the muffins will turn darker (ie more brownish) and more moist after one night. I took my photo the next day. You can leave your muffins inside the oven for another 6-8 minutes after the baking time with power off. So, the residue heat will help to brown the muffins a little bit. Please note that the darker the muffins, the drier they become. Thus, it’s better not to over-bake them. Hope it helps!

Ivy: Sorry to hear about that. I’m not sure how to advise you as you didn’t provide me enough information. Over or under mixing your batter could be the reason too. Maybe you go through the comments made by other readers and see whether they are relevant to your situation. Give it another go and see how it goes. Please don’t give up as this recipe has been tried and tested by many of my readers who are new in baking.

Hi there, just baked a batch of the muffins. The texture is dense and heavy, which I guess is typical of a muffin… Am I right?

The texture however is rather chewy, I can’t say that it’s moist. Just wondering had I over mix it?

And as I remove the muffin case,it doesn’t come off clean, it has a good amount of muffin stuck to it, from the sides to the bottom of the muffin case.
Would u b able to tell what went wrong? Many thanks!

Jaclyn: For my muffins, they should not be dense and heavy. In your case, I think you may under/ over-mix. It’s quite hard for me to trouble shoot your problems as I didn’t see how you made it. Did you mash your bananas until mushy? Why not go through my recipe again, compare it with my other muffin recipes and give it another try. If you’re using a muffin pan, then you need to grease it, sieve flour on top and dust off any extra flour. Hope it helps!

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Hi, I also stored my banana muffins in the freezer. I tried both methods to make them warm when I want to eat. It is proven that the steam method is better as it gives moist to the muffins. While microwave muffin makes it dried. So ur tips are really useful to me. Plus the muffins baking tips, now I always preheat my oven to 10 degree higher and reset to the degree I want when I put the muffin in the oven. I also fill my muffin 80% full and it comes up perfectly dome. Thanks for sharing the tips! It is useful to any type of muffinsr
to me.